Starring Bezzie, her Mad Scientist husband and their kids Chunky, Moochie, and Baby Sister in a whirlwind "adventure" involving excitement, loss, separation, a series of financially draining transnational moves, hitting rock bottom, climbing up again, and a slight change of plans. Oh, and there will be some knitting involved too!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Christmas um, cookie? countdown

Ok, so no cookies today. I skipped making Sunday cookies because Chunky's birthday is Tuesday and he wants me to bake his class Boston Cream Cupcakes to take in and I'll also be baking him a racecar cake. My fat ass doesn't need a bunch of cookies lying around in addition to all that cake!

However, I know y'all wanted the recipe for the Pumpkin Praline Roll I made for dessert for Thanksgiving.

You get that today instead of cookies.

I took this from Betty Crocker's Ultimate Cake Mix Cookbook (no comments on the cake mix factor Nikki!) I'm probably violating copyright laws by putting this in here, but I'll put the way I bake it.

Grease a sheet of aluminum foil or wax paper and line a jelly roll pan (15 1/2" X 10 1/2" X 1"). I used parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375 deg.

Take your 3 eggs and beat the hell out of them until they're stiff or lemon yellow. Mine never got stiff, but that didn't hurt the recipe.

Add in the pumpkin. Beat until incorporated.

Gradually beat in the cake mix, the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves on low speed (you don't need a mixer to do this though--your arm works just as well)

Pour the cake onto the pan, spread it to all of the corners.

Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the middle of the cake bounces back when you touch it.

When the cake comes out it should look something like this:

My jelly roll pan was a tad bit too big. I only used half of it.

Here's where you have to work fast.

Take a clean dishtowel and sugar it to hell with powdered sugar.

Now take the cake, and put it on the towel with the sugar. You can do this by putting the towel over the cake while it's in the pan and turning it upside down and then peeling the foil/wax paper/parchment paper off the bottom of the cake.

Now roll the cake up in the towel.

Let it cool for 30 minutes.

While it's cooling it's time to make the frosting!

Take your 4 oz of cream cheese (softened) and cream it together with the 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

I used dark brown sugar. Those little nuggets of molasses like sugar you see in my cream cheese mixture did NOT hurt the final outcome of the frosting.

Now slowly add your 1 cup of heavy whipping cream.

Whip it. Whip it real good.

Check out the stiffness of those peaks.

Now add some crushed pecans. You can do the 2 tablespoons the recipe calls for, or more.

By now, it's nearly time to unroll the cake. If not, then put the frosting in the fridge to help it keep it's consistency.

When it's time to unroll the cake, slowly unroll it.

Don't worry if it cracks like a mo'fo because that honestly makes no difference. Mine cracked a hell of a lot more than what's shown here.

Frost the inside of the roll with 1/2 of the frosting and roll it back up. Transfer it to a serving plate.

With the rest of the frosting, go to town on the cake. Sprinkle pecans all over the cake top.

Be sure to keep the cake in the fridge, covered loosely, when not in use.

It was so damn good!!

And hey, I know this doesn't take the place of Cheapass Christmass.

Since y'all really seem to be missing that I'll make a point of posting some Cheapass Tips this season. I can't guarantee it will be structured like last year though!